DISORDERS OF CONSCIOUSNESS, DISABILITY RIGHTS, AND TRIAGE DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC: Even the Best of Intentions Can Lead to Bias

This chapter gives a comprehensive overview of civil rights violations of patients who are in a minimally conscious state. Fins notes that there is a dearth of understanding of the variety and complexity of such states and how they present. This lack of understanding has created a bias around triage practices and allocation of ventilators during the COVID-19 pandemic, assuming that patients in minimally conscious states have qualities of life so low that they are not worth saving. This is yet another injustice experienced by those in minimally conscious states.